LAST UPDATE | 14 Jul 2022

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know about as you start your day.

1. Refugees

In this morning’s lead story, Christina Finn reports on the upcoming meeting between the Taoiseach and relevant ministers today to discuss the shortage of State accommodation for new arrivals of refugees from Ukraine and other countries.

The Citywest facility in west Dublin reached full capacity last night, with Government sources confirming to The Journal that the Gormanstown tented accommodation in Meath is to open “within days”.

Alternative sites and centres, such as stadiums, could also be opened as part of a “multi-layered response” to the situation.

Cabinet only recently signed off on a proposal to lease the Citywest Hotel in Dublin for two years to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.

The hotel and conference centre can accommodate about 2,300 people fleeing the war.

2. Waiting lists

Over to the continent, up to 1,500 routine surgeries are expected to be carried out on Irish patients at a new Spanish hospital opening today over the coming year.

The new €60 million state-of-the-art hospital in southeast Spain will be offering Irish public health patients treatments thanks to the EU Cross Border Directive. This directive allows Irish people to get healthcare in another EU or EEA member state. Under the agreement patients need a valid referral and must qualify as a public patient in Ireland for the healthcare procedure.

The patient must pay for the healthcare, but can then apply to the HSE for reimbursement towards the cost. Travel costs are not reimbursed.

3. Mo Farah

Across the pond, the Metropolitan Police have launched an investigation into Mo Farah’s revelation that he was trafficked to the UK illegally under the name of another child.

The four-time Olympic champion, 39, recently revealed in the BBC documentary The Real Mo Farah how he was brought to Britain from Somalia illegally having assumed the name of another child after his father was killed in the civil war.

4. Tory leadership race

The battle for Number 10 continues with Jeremy Hunt throwing his weight behind Rishi Sunak after being knocked out of the race to succeed Boris Johnson in the first round of voting by Tory MPs.

The endorsement gives the former chancellor a boost ahead of the second ballot today, which will eliminate the least popular candidate.

5. Ukraine

Moving to Ukraine, the country has announced it is severing relations with North Korea, as Pyongyang confirmed it was formally recognising two self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics in eastern Ukraine.

North Korea’s recognition of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic came after another Russian ally, Syria, made the same move last month.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry in a statement denounced North Korea’s decision to recognise territories Kyiv described as “temporarily occupied by Russia”.

“In response… Ukraine announces it is cutting diplomatic relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the statement said.

6. Dublin Airport

Meanwhile back at home, pint-swilling passenger, long queues and overflowing toilets were among the issues raised with ministers at the Department of Transport by some of those who travelled through Dublin Airport at the start of the summer.

A selection of correspondence sent to Transport Minister Eamonn Ryan and junior minister Hildegarde Naughton at the end of May, released under Freedom of Information, details the frustrations felt by passengers who used the airport as the summer travel season commenced.

The complaints were made during a week in which passengers began to face lengthy lines to get through security and when tents were put up to ‘triage’ passengers who arrived too early for their flights.

7. An Bord Pleanála

An Bord Pleanála says it “fully recognises” the seriousness and potential damage that recent allegations have made to the Board’s reputation for integrity, independence and impartiality, an Oireachtas Committee will hear today.

The former deputy chairperson of ABP, Paul Hyde, resigned over the weekend amid an ongoing probe, lead by senior counsel Remy Farrell, into multiple planning decisions following allegations that conflicts of interest were not declared.

8. Sri Lanka

Looking internationally once more, the Sri Lankan president has fled the country after failing to deliver on his vow to resign by yesterday evening despite furious protests in the country demanding that he vacate the office.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left for the Maldives yesterday aboard an air force jet after protesters stormed the presidential palace at the weekend.

He told the country that he would resign but has failed to do so, instead making the prime minister acting president in his absence, a move that further angered a public that blames Rajapaksa for an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of food and fuel.

9. Service charges 

Finally, back in the Dáil, new legislation which will guarantee staff in the hospitality industry receive their tips passed through the Oireachtas yesterday and is set to become law.

The Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Bill was passed in both Houses of the Oireachtas yesterday.

The new law will ensure that tips and gratuities are distributed fairly to staff.

Employers will also be banned from describing mandatory charges as “service charges” unless they are treated in the same way as tips or gratuities.